BRINDLE HORSES

……and how I got started. Back in 2001 or so my friend Barbara K. use to call me all the time and tell me to look at the horse she was looking at online. she would say, “I want this one, OH look at this one, I want that one”. Then one day she called me and said “I found the horse that I want ! It’s a brindle !. I told her there was no such thing ! She proved me wrong by sending me to Sharon Batteate’s site. I was so interested in them, I had to learn about them. Here I am several years later with the largest brindle horse herd known, and still trying to figure out the big mystery.

So, to you Barb ! THANKS !

I would like to thank Sharon Batteate for all the wisdom she has given me and the great start with her line of inheritable brindle horses. I will miss turning to her for her great insight and sharing my learnings with her. In memory of Sharon Batteate 1948-2010 whom I consider the “Brindle Queen”

This page is loaded with pictures please give it time to load if you want to see some magnificent brindle horse markings !

MY GOALS in breeding for the brindle color are easy. ONE, to keep the standard of pedigree up and to not lose site of a well bred horse and go just for color. TWO, to maybe keep this rare color alive, promote it and pass it on to others that are willing to follow in the same path. THREE to help others learn who are willing. Follow us on face book

People ask, how do you get those stripes on horses? What is the genetic makeup of the brindle pattern? The answer is that there is basically very little testing done on Brindle colored horses because there is not many of them out there to test on. To date I don’t know of any specific tests for the “brindle gene” but there is a blood/hair test for Chimerism. If he/she is not positive to be a Chimera type that is all that test is saying. It doesn’t mean it can pass it on, you just then need to do some test breeding to see if it might pass on at that point as it doesn’t determine if he/she is inheritable or otherwise. It is thought that the brindle reorganizes sootiness into vertical stripes.

It appears to me that there is three ways in which a Brindle phenotype (outward appearance) can occur. I say three vs. two only because we dont realIy know about what the inderminate pattern is but we do call it brindle in many cases. In some horses, the pattern has been inheritable, others seem to just pop up that is known as indeterminate, and the last is when two embyos fuse and produce a type of brindle patterned horse with NO inheritable gene, which is a Chimera. To date there are several brindle stallions standing out there but only 3 that I know of from the inheritable line that do actually put the stripes on their foals at a higher % rate. They all come from the foundation mare IMA STAR MOON BAR and I have 2 of breeding age as of 2009. I have also kept back some grandsons of hers that I will be test breeding soon. I have AQHA and APHA inheritable brindle producers. When you look at any of the three different types of coat patterns that I talk about it is difficult to look at one and tell which type it is.

Chimera:They have completed a few tests on Brindle colored horses with the more striking pattern and usually more even over the body on both sides but not always. The tests were done on horses like pictured at the very bottom of the page below and what they found was that each horse had two genotypes which is extremely rare. It seems that the more striking pattern is the result of two embryos blending to form one individual, which makes them a Chimera. (Laminate Terms of Chimerism (chimera) is basically chimera in a animal that has two or more different populations of genetically distinct cells that originated in different zygotes meaning basically 2 embryos fuse into one. It’s said to be a “FLUKE” very, very rare and suppose ably not possible to reproduce it .)

Inheritable:There also seems to be another type of Brindle Patterned horses and that is one that comes fromthe mare called“Ima StarMoon Bar”. This pattern is not as “Striking” as the pictures at the very bottom of the page and it is harder to see from different angels and or lighting on some horses and others it’s easier to see. This pattern has proven to be inheritable unlike the more striking pattern. Star has produced five foals to date, four of which I believe carry her seasonal pattern(see inheritable page). This indicates there is a gene involved, which is inherited dominantly, since approximately 80%+ of her foals have inherited the pattern from her.Keep in mind that the “inheritable brindle” that we talk of all started with the mare we call “STAR”. There are now several sons and daughters re-producing her inheritable pattern so now we have more versatality in reproduction then just her one son that was doing all the work previous to 2008 we call “Punky”. More on this pattern if you click on the inheritable link.

Indeterminate:is basically some sort of streaking or texturing which resembles and could be the result of brindling, but could also be the result of some other phenotypical pattern. for centuries there have been reports of brindle horses. I basically call it “pop up”, it’s not the inheritable as we know it and it’s not Chimera but its hard to get it to pop up again when bred. The look is more sporatic over the body some horses only have partial streaking on their body others have it much more.

Many people confuse the Brindle pattern with Dun Factor markings (stripe down the back, barring on the legs, and occasional regular-spaced striping down the ribs or even heavy shading coming down from their dorsal stripe). At one time, it was thought Brindle was a just a variation of Dun Factor. Indeed, there have been many examples of horses that were probably carrying both Dun Factor and Brindle. However, many do not have any Dun Factor markings whatsoever, indicating the two patterns are distinct genetically.

Brindle horses also have texturing in their coat, similar to that seen in some Appaloosa horses. The pattern seems to be inheritable, especially in terms of coat texturing, but the expression of the darker or more intense pigment to make the pattern visible is highly variable, and even varies with individual horses seasonally / yearly. Sometimes the pattern seems to be composed of dark hair (black or brown), sometimes of white hair (roan or gray).

There is a great site about Brindle horses filled with information to check it out go to THE BRINDLE HORSE SITE

Below are a few different pictures of some of my inheritable brindles and the way their coats come out. Most have pretty much the same“Brindle Characteristics”They have raised hair that is darker then the other hair. Sharon Batteate that has done over 18 years of discovery on Brindles whom has theBrindle Horse Sitehad told me about how many Brindles have certain“traits” (see coat page) like what she calls “moth eaten” and until these two fillies of mine started to get their winter coat (pictured here) I didn’t know what she really meant until they started to display it. Another thing that Sharon has noted is some Brindles display thinning hair on the top of the tail, forelock, and mane. As you can see in some of the pictures below the top of some of their tails almost looks like they have been rubbing on them, even though they have not.

This picture below is of the mare “Ima Star Moon Bar” (aka: Star) which is the mother or grand dam of most all “inheritable brindle” gened horses pictured below. She was once owned by Sharon Batteate and I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to get her from Sharon and follow along this mares lines to carry on her legacy, which I did.

This is “Girly Girl” I had her for just a short time before selling her to the UK England – If they end up breeding her there I will try and update site to show what she ended up having. she is double bred brindle, hence the more vibrant pattern

I had leased “Stars” son Ima Star Brindle Bar (aka:Punky) and the foals below unless otherwise noted in the “inheritable brindle section” are his. Most all of these foals are SINGLE gene inheritable bred.

As you can see below the 2005 weanling dun filly is on the left and a buckskin filly on the right, and with the close up picture they are getting their winter coats and it almost appears that someone took scissors to them or another horse was biting at them to make these marks but it’s actually the difference in how the hair grows with the brindle hairs. All of the faint lines you see on their body are the streaks of Brindle.

Two Buckskins below are half sisters(two different sires, same dam) in their fall/winter coats the filly on the right is DOUBLE bred with the inheritable brindle gene .

I know some of these pictures are not the best but I’m trying to post the ones you can faintly see. This is a Dun filly and picture on left is in winter of ’08 and the picture on the right is spring of ’09

extremely hard to capture the “inheritable brindle” pattern on most horses at any time of the day.

This is a black brindle when she is sun faded out. The far right picture of her hind end is a fall picture of her winter coat coming in.

The bay and white APHA mare above is a full pattern Inheritable brindle on both sides of her body – All of her foals to date are brindle as well, most with louder markings than her. this is a pic of her 2012 filly pictures taken July of 2014

Below is a few close up pic’s of my Grulla AQHA Brindle mare taken in December. She has pretty much Brindling all over her body. More so on her hips and sides. Pictures directly below are close ups of her left and right hip. This pattern I basically call it the “Pop Up” look. It is nothing like the inheritable pattern that I am working with as well.

This picture below is of her right side and shoulder Left hip summer of ’06

he has markings all over his body on both sides, but very different from side to side of his body.

This is another black mare and of course very hard to see her brindle because she is black but if you look closely you can see brindle on her right ribb and left flank. She has these scattered patterns on most of her body. At a distance or nice black coat you can not see these brindle marks on her.

Sooty Palomino, Brindle on her hips and throughout her body as well – She is tested NON-Chimeric by UC Davis

above is just a short view of some of my brindles (unless otherwise stated) I’m afraid if I list all of my brindles on this page it will take forever to download. For now this is what I will post and maybe add on later, if I dont get to many complaints on the long download times.

This is the pattern that EVERYONE OOHS and AHHS about and typically wants but remember it supposably can’t be reproduced unless another fluke happens. To my knowledge these horses below have never had a brindle foal like their own pattern.

FRS RECKLESS DAN

These are two horses below that display the brindle pattern but are tested & PROVEN to be Chimeric

Laminate Terms of Chimerism (chimera) is basically chimera in a animal that has two or more different populations of genetically distinct cells that originated in different zygotes meaning basically 2 embryos fuse into one. It’s said to be a “FLUKE” very, very rare and suppose ably not possible to reproduce it . I think I’m correct that we don’t know of any “Chimeric“ horses that have ever reproduced their loud striking pattern when bred. As brindle breeders would say we think it’s best to breed brindle to brindle even though they maybe chimeric. There is some type of genes there that popped out and and we just hope they will pop again when bred together.

Stallion on Left is Dunbars Gold, owned by Carole Dunbar mare on right is “Sharp One” owned by Denise Charpilloz